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I thought you might like to know why I find myself not only unable torecommend your firm, Acrobat Removals, but to positively discourageanyone from using your services.

My complaints start on the day your company packed up and moved thecontents of my house and garage.

If you remember you visited my house and gave me a quote for packingpart of the house and moving my goods to Sydney. I then, on Monday,gave you a chance to revise your quote as I was unable to pack part ofthe house that I said I would. So you had two chances to have a lookat the amount of goods to that had to be moved. On Monday you alsotold me that the men would be able to complete the packing by 1 PM to1:30 PM.

My problems started when I realised on Tuesday at around 12 that therewas no chance of your men completing by 1:30. This was unfortunatesince I had to leave shortly before 1 to ensure I could have my cat tothe cattery in Sydney before 4PM, leaving my partner Sonia tosupervise the completion of packing and loading.

Imagine how I felt when at around 2PM I received a phone call from anupset and stressed partner who told me that your men had said theywoiuld not be able to fit everything on the truck and what of theunloaded goods were a priority. I got this phone call while I wasdriving through the Central Coast on the F3 in heavy traffic and rainsqualls.

Then when you arrived at the loading I thought there might be some light.

Imagine how my unhappiness increased when it was almost 4 PM whenSonia told me that your men had finished but despite your assurance ataround 2:30 PM that they had not been able to load everything and shewas having to take some things to her mothers before she could atlast start the almost three hour drive to our hotel. It was at thisstage that your men asked me to change the arrival time at my newSydney home from the agreed and contracted time of 8:30 AM to 6:30 or7 AM. You may understand my reluctance to shift it, though I did agreeto half an hour earlier.

My mood dropped even further when my tired and emotional partnerarrived at the hotel and broke down into tears after the stressfulafternoon she had coping with the unprofessional manner of your staff.

I thought it was impossible but I became even more unhappy when Idiscovered that the six wheel trolley I bought a few weeks ago to makeit easier to re-organise before moving and after moving was one of thethings that had not been packed onto your truck.

Now my problems continue. Your men unloaded the truck.

While the packing and loading was going on I had stressed that it wasimportant that in Sydney I would need to be able to have the TV, theFoxtel box, home theatre and their wiring by 12 as the Foxtel man wasarriving between 12 and 5. While the TvV and the boxes were unloadedearly it was after 11 and no sign of the wiring, which I hadpersonally disconnected, packed and placed in a bag on top of the twoboxes. It took me losing my temper before a 15 minute search unearthedthem.

When they were about 4/3 through unloading they started saying theywould not have enough room to put all the boxes. I suggested theyunload my dining room table and sideboard and put boxes on top ofthem. I was told they were too far back and when I suggested they putboxes on my verandah until they could be unloaded one of your men saidhe couldn’t do that as he didn’t like putting things down and pickingthem up again. The young man is lucky I didn’t say what I thought ofhis reluctance and where he could put it.

It was around this time that I heard the other man make two rudecomments to my partner. Not a wise thing to do. Once again I bit mytongue.

Now we come to my discoveries as I started to unpack last night andtoday. One of your packers had carefully removed and collected intoone spot all the shelf pins from my four adjustable bookshelves. I am yet to findthem.

While the unloading was going on I said that my new garage downstairswas to hold everything from the garage in Broadmeadow and everythingmarked storage. I now have at least five boxes upstairs that should bedownstairs. While one of the men was unloading I saw him with a boxthat contains my snare drum. I said, “that box you’ve got with ‘Tama’written on the side needs to go in my study.” It is now half way backin my garage.

I now have at least six boxes that came from my kitchen that aremarked with “Kitchen – bits and pieces” and one marked “Kitchen –miscellaneous” with no more information than that such as what part ofthe kitchen they came from or a clue to their possible contents. Sothat I could have something to eat off I thought I would unpack a boxthat was labelled “Kitchen – plates, bowls and glasses”, it containedno bowls and only four glasses, the rest was plates. One of the twoboxes marked “Kitchen – pantry” contained a great deal of food and anopen bottle of ant poison (which wasn’t in the pantry in Newcastlethrown into the top. Saucepans and their lids have been thrown intoboxes in any manner and without and wrapping or padding. All I can sayto that is that I haven’t found the copper bottomed large boiler mymother paid $250 for when she gave it to me for the my last birthdaybefore she died but heaven help you if there is so much as a scratchor a ding on it – I expect to pass it along to my daughter just as myfather passed on to me the high quality, copper bottom saucepans nowalmost forty years old your employees threw around with abandon.Fortunately, apart from a loose handle I fixed with a screwdriver, theones I have found so far are no worse off. I guess your employees arelucky my father bought quality cookware.

So that is why I cannot recommend your company and why I will not beusing them to move the goods I have in storage in Newcastle to Sydney.

I should also advise you that a copy of this letter is being posted tomy weblog and on my Facebook page. You may if you wish reply but I amafraid I find myself totally unable to listen to any excuses orargument – if you can come up with a solution to the problems I nowfind myself in that means I can avoid an extra trip back to Newcastle,an hour or two shifting boxes from upstairs to down, hours attemptingto organize my new kitchen without a clue and returns to me the $50 Ispent today on a new trolley (not as good as the one sitting back inNewcastle) and new shelf pins so I could do some organising andunpacking then I am willing to listen.

Yours,

Tony Williams

UPDATE

I sent this last week and have yet to receive any reply.

I have since discovered further examples of damage due to haste and unprofessional packing. Despite being assured that pictures would be wrapped I’ve found many unwrapped glass covere…d photos shoved into boxes. The person who disassembled an Elfa draw frame bent two out of six cross bars. A roll of vintage Apple posters was shoved down so hard into a box it crumpled all of them and tore two – the box was then closed down on them so hard the other end was crumpled – the list goes on.

The Bose In Ear Headphones have had a major improvement. In my last post about them I mentioned that I’d had problems with the plastic variable size inserrts falling off. It seems I wasn’t the only one. If you sent in your warranty card bose sent you a free set of new inserts in all three sizes. They’ve been redesigned to stick on better.

Once I got the right fit for both ears and read the manual again (turns out I’d been inserting them too far) the dry ear problem went away as well. I’m going to try them on a long trip and they may well replace the Sennheisers for day to day use.

If you’d like to assist the process further then joining LinkedIn and adding me as a contact would be greatly appreciated. I find it incredibly useful in keeping contact with old olleagues and heartily recommend it.

The prospect of my two favourite companies working together fills me with glee. Hey, they are both heavily cashed up and almost totally complementary in the fields they cover.

Imagine Google’s developers being let loose on the total waste of money that is .Mac. I now cannot live online without Gmail and Google Browser Sync. If Google want to develop a Google PC or Google OS then they could do much worse than ask Steve and Jonathon Ives to give them a hand.

Of course this could be no more than Steve recruiting a smart guy to the board, but I doubt that Google would be happy aboutn having their CEO on someone else’s board unless they intended to move a little closer to the company.

The people at iLounge have released a second edition of their free iPod book and if you click on the link above to go and see the details you will give me a chance of winning some great prizes – so click away, thanks.